


Hidden Shadows

by Goldy



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Bittersweet, Canon Compliant, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-29
Updated: 2014-07-29
Packaged: 2018-02-08 19:08:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1952703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Goldy/pseuds/Goldy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s too late in her timeline, but Jack checks up on her anyway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hidden Shadows

  
It’s been six years since he’s checked up on Rose Tyler.

He knows he should probably leave it that way. Sometimes things get fuzzy for him. People and events start to blur together in an endless circular loop, but he understands it’s too late in her lifetime. It could get messy. Timelines and all that.

She looks like he remembers. (From back then.) Her hair is shorter, but her eyes sparkle in the same way they had when he danced with her on his spaceship in the middle of a German air raid.

There’s a new bloke with her and Jack almost doesn’t recognize him, not at first. He even thinks: _Good on you, Rose Tyler. Good on you. This one’s not even half-bad looking._

He takes a step forward and then stops, smile slipping. Rose shuts the gate behind her, giving the bloke a mischievous smile. Silently, they join hands. They laugh and walk down the middle of the street, moving like it’s not the middle of the night, like it’s not freezing cold out and they’re not surrounded by drug dealers and miscreants. And Jack knows. He’s found them. Both of them.

He has to stop and breathe, closing his eyes and exhaling sharply. He could do it. He could run up and stop them.

He doesn’t.

Instead he follows behind them, keeping to the shadows. The years on his own have taught him how to hide.

Watching them is familiar and haunting and wrong and right. This Doctor moves faster than he used to. There’s a lightness to his step, like he’ll burst if he doesn’t find a way to keep moving.

The Doctor has a blanket rolled up under one arm, and Rose checks periodically over her shoulder, shaking her head when she turns back to the Doctor. “No sign of her yet.”

“Better not be.”

“Oh, come on. I think you put enough sedative in her tea to knock her out for two days straight.”

“She was going to make us go to karaoke night! I don’t sing in public.”

“You did when we were in the Alpha System.”

“I was coerced.”

“You were _trying_ to get the attention of the local fief so that you could have an excuse to run him out of town!”

“Ooh, a park!” the Doctor interrupts. “Let’s stop here.”

Jack hesitates. He can’t leave now. Not when everything he’s been searching for the last 150 years is right in front of him.

There are two homeless men sleeping on the benches, clutching torn bags to their chest, various beer bottles splayed out on the ground around them. The Doctor and Rose pay them no mind, walking straight by and settling down on the grass, curling up on the blanket.

Jack approaches them from behind, stopping behind the swing set. Each breath comes out like a pant. He almost thinks seeing them again might kill him. Might.

Rose’s head rests somewhere between the Doctor’s arm and shoulder. He holds one of her hands close to his chest, his free hand pointing up towards the sky.

“Beautiful night,” he says. “Couldn’t have done it better myself. And that’s saying something.”

Rose humphs skeptically. “So which ones have we been to?”

“Um… there.” He points to one of the stars and Rose follows his movements. “And there. Yup, and there.”

“What about that one?”

“Nope,” says the Doctor. He pauses. “Want to?”

Rose smiles widely. “Maybe. What is it?”

“No idea,” he says. “In fact, we could go check it out right now. Could be fun.”

She pokes him in the side. “Someone’s got to be here when Mum wakes up with the hangover from hell tomorrow morning—and _whose_ fault was that?”

The Doctor doesn’t look at all ashamed. He moves in closer to Rose and mumbles something Jack can’t hear.

He has to look away from them. He glances at the sky, trying to find the stars they were pointing at. He can almost feel it—the TARDIS moving under his feet, the thrill of a new place, the looks the Doctor sends him when he flirts with Rose too much.

When he opens his eyes, the Doctor and Rose have snuggled closer. The Doctor’s hand idly trails up and down Rose’s arm, his chin resting comfortably to the top of her head.

They’re quiet, but then Rose says, “You’re really bony, you know.”

“Oh, thanks.”

“Nah. I don’t mind.”

“That friend of mine, Rose Tyler, I always say, she’s a generous human being.”

Rose rolls her eyes and props herself up on one elbow. She stares down at him for a second before leaning in and kissing him.

Jack can tell right away that this isn’t the first time they’ve done this. The Doctor responds immediately, leaning into the kiss. One of his hands comes up to tangle in her hair, cupping the back of her neck.

It doesn’t last long before Rose pulls away, teeth biting down on her bottom lip. The Doctor keeps his eyes closed.

“Cold night,” she whispers.

Instead of answering, the Doctor pulls her in close again, wrapping both arms around her and she presses her ear to her chest. A contended smile curves at her lips.

Jack takes one step forward and then stops, one hand stretched out in front of him. It would be so easy. Just another few steps forward. He would clear his throat and….

And what? They’re getting on fine without him. They seem happier now than they’ve ever been. There’s no guilt for abandoning him. Nothing to indicate they even _think_ about him.

He has nothing to show for himself. These last twenty years, he’s skulked around, drinking too much, trying too many drugs, getting his hands dirty with things that would make the Doctor ashamed.

He takes a step back. He can’t. He can’t do it. He can’t walk in and expect things to be like they were. Not until he’s better, not until he’s done something with his life.

The Doctor raises his head, eyes scanning the park. Jack pulls his coat over his head and turns around.

“What?” says Rose’s voice.

“Thought I saw… must have been the wind.”  



End file.
